Gotta admire their tenacity.

[ot]They don't have these tags here apparently.[/ot]

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Personally, I am looking at a larger picture. I still think a lot of consolidation will becoming in the near future. You will have less hobbyists sites that mean anything and fewer corporate sites at the top. Even today, Dow Jones bought CBS Marketwatch for $519 Million. That effectively brings the financial world a single powerhouse to disseminate news. Sure there will be second and third tier sites but will they ever be profitable.

I can see the same thing happening in Search Engines in the next year. Maybe not a single site but three, maybe two, top tier sites with the rest scrambling over the scraps. Microsoft is guaranteeing themselves a top tier spot with independant search, sheer volume, marketing and brandname. This is not only in search but as an ISP as well. Now that the telecom companies are retaking the ISP aspect of the Internet, you will find a lot fewer competitors.

Search, Content, Multimedia, Applications, Partnerships, Portal, Communities, Email (Free and Fee), Instant Messaging, Technology... Microsoft has it all. Heck even their main competitor in this area uses their technology. However with Microsoft, all this is just one-third of their strategy.